Our View: Promises to keep — There will be miles to go before council rescinds its 44 percent raise

Ward 4 Councilor Dana Rebeiro was to have made a motion Thursday night to rescind the 44 percent raise the City Council voted for itself in 2012, "until such time as the Council can review a more suitable adjustment that is more reflective of the City's current financial standing."

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Posted Mar. 14, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Posted Mar. 14, 2014 at 12:01 AM

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Ward 4 Councilor Dana Rebeiro was to have made a motion Thursday night to rescind the 44 percent raise the City Council voted for itself in 2012, "until such time as the Council can review a more suitable adjustment that is more reflective of the City's current financial standing."

It was one of the things she ran on before winning the Ward 4 seat in November.

She had originally intended to wait until she had the six votes required to rescind the raise before making the motion, but that might be a very, very long wait. Faced with that reality, it would seem that in order to fulfill the substance of her campaign promise, if not the spirit, she might as well make the motion now.

Cynics among us might conclude that her original hesitation in asking her fellow councilors to take what might be an uncomfortable vote has been overcome by some diplomatic maneuver that allows them to vote against Rebeiro's motion, yet still work together, as they must.

The political reality is that the motion last night (taken after this was written) would likely be seconded by at-large councilor and co-sponsor Naomi Carney, herself a freshman on the council, and would die in the Committee on Finance or on the floor. The votes just aren't there. One never knows, however ... there just might be a taste to revisit the automatic cost-of-living raise figured into the 2012 vote.

As Councilor-at-large David Alves told our reporter on Wednesday, "I voted it, I own it, I try to earn it every day. I got re-elected. Voters knew where I stood and I got elected. I like to think I earn it."

We assume the voters — and taxpayers — like to think the councilors earn it, too. At the time the raise came up in the council, it was an attempt to give the body its first raise since 1997.

Councilors who do satisfactory work for their constituents — mostly indicated by re-election — have plenty of expenses. Rebeiro's beef with the move, as she expressed during the campaign, was that in times of layoffs in the school department and the general high unemployment in the city, it was unjustified. It wouldn't surprise us if Rebeiro is coming to see that the $500-a-month raise is not that hard to justify.

Our beef at the time was that it was done in a way that seemed so underhanded, as though the councilors knew it would make waves with the voters and sought to hide their shame. Being above-board, and perhaps postponing its implementation until the next council was sworn in might have gone a long way toward preventing this hullabaloo.

Another motion on Thursday night's agenda was for the council to "establish a Special Committee to review the salaries of all Elected Officials across the Commonwealth," submitted by council President Joe Lopes and Councilors Alves, Steven Martins, James Oliveira and Brian Gomes (Lopes was the only councilor to vote in opposition to the raise in 2012). Maybe the council isn't that unwilling after all.

Alves' forthright expression above suggests there is a recognition that the issue is settled.